create_netrc_file.md

How to Set up a .netrc file for Authentication

There are several ways to set up a .netrc file in your home directory.

• Manual set up

  Download the .netrc template file and save it in your home/user/ directory, where user is your personal user directory. For example: C:\Users\user\.netrc or home/user/.netrc.

  • Open the .netrc file in a text editor and replace with your NASA Earthdata Login username and with your NASA Earthdata Login password.

  After editing, the file should look something like this:

  

  or you can also have everything on a single line separated by spaces, like:

  

• Create .netrc file from the Command Line

  For Linux/MacOS:

  To Create a .netrc file, enter the following in the command line, replacing and with your NASA Earthdata username and password. This will create a file in your home directory or append your NASA credentials to an existing file.

  echo "machine urs.earthdata.nasa.gov login <USERNAME> password <PASSWORD>" >>~/.netrc

  For Windows:

  To Create a .netrc file, enter the following in the command line, replacing and with your NASA Earthdata username and password. This will create a file in your home directory or append your NASA credentials to an existing file.

  echo machine urs.earthdata.nasa.gov login <USERNAME> password <PASSWORD> >> %userprofile%\.netrc

  You can verify that the file is correct by opening with a text editor. It should look like an example in one of the figures above.

• Programmatically:

  • Python

    The earthaccess Python library provides a convenient way to authenticate, search, and access NASA Earth science data using Python. It can be used to manage Earthdata Login and generate access tokens. Run the code below to create a .netrc file in your home directory. You will be prompted to enter your Earthdata Login credentials.

    import earthaccess
    earthaccess.login(persist=True)

    Instruction on how to install the earthaccess library is provided here.

  • R

    The earthdatalogin R Package provides convenient authentication and access to NASA 'EarthData' products using R. edl_netrc function will create a .netrc file using your Earthdata Login (EDL) credentials.

    library(earthdatalogin)
    edl_netrc(username = Insert_Your_Username, password = Insert_Your_Password, netrc_path = '~/.netrc')

    More details can be found here.